Oswego County man who demonstrated against Erin Maxwell's parents found not guilty of child endangerment

John Berry / The Post-Standard file photoSteve Burdick of Palermo displays one of the signs he held in 2009 throughout the meeting of the Oswego County Legislature's Health and Human Services Committee which discussed the handling of the Erin Maxwell case by the county's Department of Social Services. John

West Monroe, NY -- A man who often carried signs about seeking justice during the child endangerment trial of Erin Maxwell’s parents was, himself, cleared of endangering the welfare of a child during a jury trial last week.

A West Monroe town court jury did find Steven D. Burdick, 45, of 4102 state Route 3, Palermo, guilty of obstruction of governmental administration, a misdemeanor, having an uninspected car and failure to present a vehicle registration, vehicle-traffic code violations.

Burdick’s lawyer, Terrance Hoffmann, said he plans to appeal the obstruction of governmental administration verdict. Burdick will be sentenced Oct. 24 and faces up to one year in jail.

He was arrested in November 2009 at a traffic checkpoint in Central Square. Police said he refused to get out of his car and was using his then 18-month-old son as a human shield as he argued with a deputy. Burdick said he refused to get out of the car because he wanted to put his child back into his car seat.

Hoffmann said the endangering and obstruction charges both stem from him picking up the child while talking to the deputy. He said it doesn’t make any sense for the jury to find Burdick not guilty of one charge and guilty of the other. “The fact that he didn’t immediately get out of the car is easy to understand,” Hoffmann said, noting Burdick had the toddler and a 6-year-old daughter in the car at the time.

Hoffmann said a charge of driving with a suspended license was dropped because the police computer issued incorrect information. Burdick’s license never had been suspended. Hoffmann said the uninspected car charge stemmed from the inspection sticker falling off the windshield and the not presenting a registration charge comes from Burdick driving his wife’s car and not knowing where the registration was.

“I think he got a raw deal,” Hoffmann said of Burdick. He said Burdick asked police to issue him a ticket, but police arrested him and put him in handcuffs. “This is a case of the police not using good judgment and common sense,” Hoffmann said.

Burdick came into the public spotlight some months before the traffic incident when he appeared at Palermo town court with signs seeking justice in the case of 11-year-old Erin Maxwell, strangled in August 2008. Her father and stepmother were found guilty of child endangerment and served jail sentences as a result, after it was revealed they made the girl live in deplorable conditions.